AFL rookie draft 2024: League stands by rookie list amid calls for changes

Sixteen delisted players — including one of the AFL’s most experienced forwards — are now classed as rookies. But JON RALPH reports the AFL will resist calls for changes to the rookie list and draft.

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA – SEPTEMBER 30: Oleg Markov of the Magpies celebrates after the 2023 AFL Grand Final match between the Collingwood Magpies and the Brisbane Lions at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on September 30, 2023 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Russell Freeman/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

The AFL has no intention of tinkering with its much-criticised rookie list despite clubs consistently using it as a dumping zone for established talent.

The rookie list was once the only chance for clubs to take a swing on untried talent not deemed good enough for the national draft, with Luke Breust holding the rookie games record with 300 games and counting.

RECAP: EVERY PLAYER TAKEN IN 2024 ROOKIE DRAFT

But ahead of this year’s rookie draft, AFL clubs delisted 16 players with the intention to re-rookie them, led by Hawthorn’s Jack Gunston and Pies premiership player Oleg Markov.

It has sparked fresh calls to abolish the rookie list altogether to rationalise lists into a single group of players with the same list privileges.

No more 'rookie' drafts please, AFL. Call them supplementary lists and be done with it.

— Paul Amy (@PaulAmy375) November 22, 2024

But the league believes the rookie list is just one of a long list of mechanisms to allow talent to blossom and has no intention of making significant changes.

Jack Gunston will start 2025 as a rookie.

Premiership Magpie Oleg Markov will also be on the rookie list.

Critically, players put onto the rookie list are able to be signed on one-year deals while first-round national draft picks sign mandatory three-year deals and national draftees taken after the first round sign mandatory two-year deals.

First-year rookies are also paid less than national draftees, although clubs can pay rookies their current contract when they shift them from the primary list.

So while players like Gunston are moved onto the rookie list they do not take pay cuts even though they are off the primary list of 40 players.

The decision by clubs to push players like Gunston onto the rookie list does not deny players opportunity, it actually allows them the certainty of two-year deals if taken in the national draft.

The decision to move those 16 current players onto the rookie list allowed clubs more spots to take national draft talent.

The AFL’s mid-season draft is a new mechanism for bringing talent onto lists that has in some ways curtailed the effectiveness of the rookie list.

While VFL coaches often complained about redrafted players taking the spot of state league heroes, the VFL and other states leagues have now become a pipeline for AFL talent.

Richmond VFL utility Sam Davidson became the 18th player in a row to win that league’s Under-23 best player award and find their way to an AFL list when the Dogs took him in the national draft.

Sydney also secured Werribee bolter Riley Bice in the national draft as a 24-year-old a year after that VFL club gave Shaun Mannagh his chance to showcase his talents before he was taken by Geelong in the 2023 national draft.